NEWS COMMENTARY ON THE NEW YEAR SCHOOL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON

If the assessment by the Jewish scholar- Yehezkel Dror- to the effect that a public policy is a very complex and dynamic process whose various components make different contributions to it, with the view of deciding major guidelines for actions directed at the future by governmental organizations, is anything to go by, then the Annual New Year School and Conference by the University of Ghana ought to be given the thumbs up.

The University of Ghana has over the years organized the New Year School with or without government support regardless of which government is in office. Instituted in 1948 as the Department for Extra Moral Studies, the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education of the University of Ghana has paid its dues through realistic contributions to the enrichment of Ghana’s economic, political, educational, social and cultural sectors.

The Annual New Year School has in the last 65 years selected themes based on non-partisan national socio-economic challenges facing the country; and participants have arguably handled discussions in the school in the most dispassionate manner.

The Institute has in the last five years deliberated on issues that were aimed to move Ghana to the next pedestal of progress with corresponding results. For instance the school last year discussed ways of improving upon issues on water, sanitation, and hygiene with the view to safeguarding the health of the people with the Executive Chairman of Zoomlion and Jaspong Group of Companies, Dr.Joseph Siaw Agyapong, as the main speaker.

The net effect according to the director of the institute, Prof. Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi, is the construction of landfills and other steps taken to address the health and sanitation needs of the country. Indeed, whatever is needed to move Ghana forward has been largely been discussed in the Annual New Year school.

At the 61st New Year School in 2010, the Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Georgina Theodora Wood spoke extensive on corruption, bi-partisan long term national development, need to review the 1992 Constitution, transparent and credible power transfer, ethnic politics, proliferation of small arms and many critical issues.

As if she foresaw what was ahead in elections 2012, the Chief Justice, a democratic theorist, called for tolerance and reminded Ghanaians that elections alone does not constitute democracy and asked all to take a cue from post election disputes in countries like Kenya, Cote d’ Ivoire and Rwanda.

Thank God Ghana narrowly escaped in 2013 but that does not mean we will be lucky all the time. Admittedly consensus building among people of diverse backgrounds as well as the platform for dispassionate discussions of national issues devoid of partisan politics that the New Year School provides has contributed largely to the culture of tolerance and deepening of the so called Ghanaian hospitality at least outside NDC/NPP politics.

Equally remarkable is the decision by organisers of the New Year school to use one theme for the next five years. If the words of the man Joseph Gobbels, who is popularly referred to as the father of propaganda that ‘a stupendous lie repeated with zeal eventually gains credibility is true, then how much more will a rational truth repeated with zeal yield?

The Theme Information and Communication Technology-Driven Education for Sustainable Human Development: Challenges and Prospects, which is expected to run for the next five years must yield dividends for at least two reasons: First participants will be coming out with a communiqué annually on how ICT can improve productivity.

Secondly, the world has moved from the Stone Age through to the Industrial and now to the Digital Age for which Ghana cannot and must not be left out. Today, world class Universities in the UK, USA, India and many other countries are using ICT to provide quality education from first degree to PHD through e-learning and the open University system.

According to the former vice chancellor of the University College of Education, Prof. Josphus Anamoah-Mensah, Ghana needs additional 17 Universities with a capacity of 30 thousand students each by 2025 to absorb the teeming number of Senior High School leavers, which translate into building one new university every two months.

Certainly, the current educational system of instruction was built for a generation that is fast fading away and Ghana must adopt ICT to address the educational needs of its people. Available data at the national communication authority indicate that about 26 miilion mobile phones are in use in Ghana.

Surely, these can be used productively in addressing the needs of education. The University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast, KNUST and the University of Education deserve commendations for the hard copy system of distance education.

The Universities offering distance education should therefore consider going digital to absorb more students and complete the task of offering quality and out of classroom direct or face to face system of education.

The Institute of Continuing and Distance Education of the premier University deserves commendation for sustaining the Annual New Year School. Authoritative actors in our body politic should endeavour to scrutinize the findings or communiqué that will be issued and take bold steps to ensure that our economy is ICT-driven for if the whole world is turning into a beast and we are left behind, we will simply be taken for meat.

BY GEORGE ASEKERE, A JOURNALIST